Thanks Fiona that looks really helpful. We've both just taken early retirement, so this could be our last "luxury" holiday and we decided to make it one to remember!

Elaine

We got back from Koh Samui on Thursday, so I thought I'd just do a brief report as Fiona has already covered it very well. The Six Senses was brilliant. It doesn't appear on your list at the moment, but if someone can add it I'll do a review.

After reading various comments and talking to a German couple at the hotel, we decided not to bother going into Cha Weng, but we visited Bophut several times. It was a lot bigger and more commercialised than I'd expected from the name "Fisherman's Village", but the shop, restaurant and bar owners were a lot more laidback than we've experienced in other parts of Thailand and didn't give us too much hassle to come and buy/try.

We popped into a bar called the Crows Nest on our first visit and liked it so much (despite the cheesey 70's music!) that we made it our first port of call on subsequent visits - sitting on the little balcony overlooking the sea and watching darkness fall, whilst also being entertained by the owner's cat and three kittens. Friday night's street walk was great - loved the huge choice of snack food available and wanted to try everything!

We both love Thai food, but I have to confess that by the end of our two weeks I was craving something I could get my teeth into, so we went to an Italian restaurant called Alla Baia, where I satisfied my craving with an enormous sirloin steak and salad. Starters of mussels in white wine and garlic sauce, tomato and mozzarella salad and bruschetta spread with crushed tomatoes and garlic were delicious and there was a wide range of pasta and pizzas for anyone else in need of a change from Thai food! The house wine was also good and relatively well-priced at (I think) 800 bahts for a litre carafe.

In the end, we decided not to do an organised tour of the island. The weather was very changeable - one minute blazing sun and a few minutes later a tropical downpour - so instead we just spent our days lazing around by the pools or on the beach. So even though the title of this thread isn't mine, it does describe our holiday in Koh Samui perfectly!

you were definitely in more upmarket accomodation than we had
My favourite part of nights in Fishermans Village was sitting on one the bar balconies overlooking the sea. There were also lots of lanterns being set off all the time when we were there. So another one who had a really lazy holiday But I think you are a bit similar to me in that a completely lazy holiday is not the norm so its good to just take the time to totally relax sometimes.